Technical Specialist [Open to internal and external applicants]

Tiered Approach

In line with the commitment to safeguard capacity and support personnel already in the Organization, a majority of UNDP UNCDF/UNV vacancies are advertised using a tiered application process whereby:

• Tier 0: UNDP/UNCDF/UNV IP staff holding permanent (PA) and fixed-term (FTA) appointments, whose posts will be abolished, or contracts will be terminated or not renewed during 2026.
• Tier 1: Other UNDP/UNCDF/UNV staff holding permanent (PA) and fixed-term (FTA) appointments
• Tier 2: UNDP/UNCDF/UNV staff holding temporary appointments (TA), personnel on regular PSA contracts, and Expert and Specialist UN Volunteers
• Tier 3 or no tier indicated: All other contract types from UNDP/UNCDF/UNV and other agencies, and other external candidates

Please make note of the Tier(s) indicated in the vacancy title, if any, and ensure that you satisfy the eligibility to apply.

Background

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the lead UN agency on international development, working in about 170 countries and territories to eradicate poverty, reduce inequality, and build resilience, focusing on six core areas: poverty and inequality, governance, resilience, environment, energy, and gender equality.

UNDP in Papua New Guinea is prioritizing environmental protection and climate change adaptation under Outcome 4 of its 2024-2028 Country Programme. The initiative aims to strengthen climate resilience, protect biodiversity, and promote sustainable natural resource management. It also supports PNG in meeting its commitments under international climate agreements, such as the Paris Agreement and the Global Biodiversity Framework. Additionally, UNDP works on advancing natural capital accounting to better recognize the economic value of ecosystems, ensuring their long-term protection and sustainable use.

The UNDP environment and climate change portfolio in Papua New Guinea (PNG) plays a crucial role in advancing sustainable resource management and climate resilience. Funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), several key projects contribute to this mission. The Sustainable Financing of Papua New Guinea’s Protected Area Network (GEF 6) focuses on ensuring long-term financial support for protected areas, enhancing conservation efforts, and promoting biodiversity protection. Meanwhile, the Integrated Land Management, Restoration of Degraded Landscapes, and Natural Capital Assessment in the Mountains of Papua New Guinea (GEF 7) aims to restore degraded ecosystems and implement sustainable land-use practices, particularly in mountainous regions, to protect vital ecosystems and mitigate climate change impacts.

Building on these initiatives, the Accelerating PNG’s Sustainable Blue Economy through Strengthened Governance and Investment in Marine Areas (GEF 8) addresses sustainable marine resource management. This project strengthens governance frameworks and promotes investment in marine conservation, supporting PNG’s efforts to develop a resilient blue economy. Together, these projects form a comprehensive strategy for the sustainable use of PNG’s natural resources, integrating land and marine conservation, climate adaptation, and economic development. Through these efforts, UNDP and its partners aim to balance economic growth with environmental sustainability, ensuring long-term benefits for both people and nature.

Papua New Guinea (PNG) is home to one of the world's most diverse marine ecosystems, featuring vast coral reefs, mangrove forests, and seagrass meadows. These ecosystems provide critical services, including food security, climate resilience, and livelihoods for coastal communities. However, unsustainable resource use, habitat degradation, climate change, and weak governance threaten the long-term viability of these ecosystems.

The project, Accelerating PNG’s Sustainable Blue Economy through Strengthened Governance and Investment in Marine Areas, is a six-year initiative implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and executed by the Conservation and Environment Protection Authority (CEPA). With financing from the Global Environment Facility (GEF-8) and co-financing partners, the project aims to strengthen marine conservation, enhance governance, and promote sustainable economic activities in key coastal and marine areas of PNG.

The project will focus on three key geographic areas: New Ireland Province, the Autonomous Region of Bougainville (AROB), and Port Moresby’s Bootless Bay. These regions are biodiversity hotspots facing significant environmental pressures, including illegal fishing, pollution, and deforestation of coastal habitats.

To address these challenges, the project will implement four major components: (1) integrating natural capital accounting into fiscal policies and economic planning, (2) strengthening marine spatial planning and governance, (3) promoting nature-based solutions (NbS) through public-private-community partnerships, and (4) facilitating knowledge sharing and capacity building.

The project is expected to improve 3.9 million hectares of marine areas, restore 20,000 hectares of mangroves, and enhance sustainable fisheries while creating lasting environmental and socio-economic benefits for PNG’s coastal communities and contributing to global climate and biodiversity goals.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the guidance and supervision of the Project Manager and Chief Technical Specialist, the Technical Specialist will carry out the above listed tasks.

Strategic Technical Leadership and Advisory Services

• Provide thought leadership and authoritative technical guidance to national and sub-national stakeholders in project implementation and policy alignment.
• Lead the integration of scientific and technical knowledge into program design, ensuring coherence with national priorities and UNDP programming principles.
• Forge linkages between project activities and relevant policy processes to foster institutionalsustainability and impact.
• Oversee collaboration with sub-national partners and co-financing agencies; provide strategic input into co-financing alignment and impact monitoring.
• Guide strategic communication and knowledge dissemination efforts, ensuring effective visibility and stakeholder engagement.
• Provide technical oversight to community-level programming to ensure scalability and sustainability.
• Oversee the development of monitoring tools and ensure strategic use of data for real-time decision-making.
• Ensure compliance with environmental, gender, and social safeguard frameworks, serving as a senior point of contact for safeguard reporting and quality assurance.
• Lead preparation and review of work plans, budgets, procurement strategies, and technical ToRs.
• Maintain intelligence on sub-national socioeconomic and environmental trends and advise on their implications for project outcomes.

Technical Oversight for Local Economic Development (LED)

• Provide policy and technical advice to integrate LED strategies within national and local development frameworks.
• Design and lead high-impact LED interventions including inclusive value chains, climate-smart livelihoods, and green enterprise development.
• Supervise technical staff and consultants; provide oversight for quality assurance and performance evaluation.
• Identify implementation bottlenecks and lead the development of risk mitigation strategies; manage project risk registers.
• Guide technical review of knowledge products, policy briefs, and publications to ensure rigor and strategic alignment.

Strategic Partnerships and Resource Mobilization

• Lead identification and cultivation of partnerships with government entities, donors, private sector actors, and civil society organizations to scale up project results.
• Represent the project in strategic forums and high-level technical discussions; present key findings and influence sector-wide dialogues.
• Contribute to the development of funding proposals and strategic investment cases aligned with
• Guide donor coordination, reporting, and relationship management to strengthen visibility and trust.
• UNDP’s resource mobilization goals.

Knowledge Management and Country Office Contribution

• Lead capacity-building initiatives for project and partner staff in thematic and cross-cutting areas.
• Drive knowledge capture from field implementation and translate insights into policy-relevant knowledge products.
• Foster horizontal learning and peer-to-peer exchange through communities of practice and regional platforms.
• Integrate project lessons into UNDP country-level programming and corporate reporting platforms.
• Develop and implement a personal learning and development strategy that contributes to innovation and professional growth.

Other Duties

• Undertake additional strategic tasks as requested by the supervisor and senior management team in alignment with project objectives and UNDP corporate priorities.

Competencies

Core Competencies

• Achieve Results: LEVEL 3: Set and align challenging, achievable objectives for multiple projects, have lasting impact
• Think Innovatively: LEVEL 3: Proactively mitigate potential risks, develop new ideas to solve complex problems
• Learn Continuously: LEVEL 3: Create and act on opportunities to expand horizons, diversify experiences
• Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 3: Proactively initiate and champion change, manage multiple competing demands
• Act with Determination: LEVEL 3: Think beyond immediate task/barriers and take action to achieve greater results
• Engage and Partner: LEVEL 3: Political savvy, navigate complex landscape, champion inter-agency collaboration
• Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 3: Appreciate benefits of diverse workforce and champion inclusivity

Cross-Functional & Technical competencies

Business Management

Working with Evidence and Data:

• Ability to inspect, cleanse, transform and model data with the goal of discovering useful information, informing conclusions, and supporting decision-making

Customer Satisfaction/Client Management:

• Ability to respond timely and appropriately with a sense of urgency, provide consistent solutions, and deliver timely and quality results and/or solutions to fulfil and understand the real customers' needs.
• Provide inputs to the development of customer service strategy. Look for ways to add value beyond clients’ immediate requests. Ability to anticipate client’s upcoming needs and concerns

Communication:

• Communicate in a clear, concise, and unambiguous manner both through written and verbal communication; to tailor messages and choose communication methods depending on the audience.
• Ability to manage communications internally and externally, through media, social media, and other appropriate channels.

Monitoring and Evaluation:

• Ability to systematically monitor results of strategies, programmes, and activities with a view to make sure that they are being implemented effectively; Ability to provide managers and key stakeholders with regular feedback and reporting on the consistency or discrepancy between planned activities and programme management and results.
• Ability to make independent judgment of the management and results of strategies, programmes and activities based on set criteria and benchmark, keeping in mind the needs and concerns of client, current and upcoming.
• Knowledge and understanding of monitoring and evaluation frameworks, concepts, methodologies, systems, processes, and tools. Ability to make an independent judgement based on set criteria and benchmarks. Ability to anticipate client's upcoming needs and concerns.

Business Direction & Strategy:

• System Thinking: Ability to use objective problem analysis and judgement to understand how interrelated elements coexist within an overall process or system, and to consider how altering one element can impact on other parts of the system.

Administration & Operations

• Event Management: Ability to manage events, including venue identification, accommodation, logistics, catering, transportation, and cash disbursements, etc.

Partnership Management

• Relationship management: Ability to engage with a wide range of public and private partners, build, sustain and/or strengthen working relations, trust and mutual understanding

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent degree) in Marine Biodiversity Conservation, Marine Protected Area Management, and/or Sustainable Fisheries Management, or equivalent field is required, or
• A first-level university degree (Bachelor’s degree) in the above fields in combination with additional 2 years of qualifying experience, will be given due consideration in lieu of the advanced university degree

Experience:

• A minimum of five (5) years ( with Master’s degree) or seven (7) years (with Bachelor’s degree) of progressive experience in marine, natural resources management, blue economy related project is required.

Required Skills:

• Experience in the use of computers, office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.) and web-based management systems, and advanced knowledge of spreadsheet and database packages.
• Experience working with local governments
• Experience in project monitoring and evaluation
• Experience in reporting
• Experience in coordinating and supervising multiple parties in their implementation of technical activities in partnership with a variety of stakeholder groups, including government, civil society, private sector, academic and research institutes, the broader donor community, and local beneficiaries
• Experience in community-level finance
• Experience working with civil society and/or private sector
• Experience in Knowledge sharing and capacity building
• Working experience in an international organization

Required Language(s):

• Fluency in English and Tok Pisin is required.

Equal opportunity

As an equal opportunity employer, UNDP values diversity as an expression of the multiplicity of nations and cultures where we operate and, as such, we encourage qualified applicants from all backgrounds to apply for roles in the organization. Our employment decisions are based on merit and suitability for the role, without discrimination.

UNDP is also committed to creating an inclusive workplace where all personnel are empowered to contribute to our mission, are valued, can thrive, and benefit from career opportunities that are open to all.

Sexual harassment, exploitation, and abuse of authority

UNDP does not tolerate harassment, sexual harassment, exploitation, discrimination and abuse of authority. All selected candidates, therefore, undergo relevant checks and are expected to adhere to the respective standards and principles.

Right to select multiple candidates

UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement. We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and educational requirements.

Use of AI by candidates

Applicants are invited to read UNDP’s guidance for candidates on using AI responsibly in UNDP recruitment and selection

Scam alert

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